Need yoiur help do you recognize this style Lionel coach?

I would guess that this is one of the 9500 series pullman cars from the early '70s.  These came with fixed non-operating couplers as standard.

 

Here's a link to one of the cars, I'm sure that a bit go google-ing will turn up a picture of your specific model.

 

http://www.collector-modeltrai...log_item/MT-0266584/

The couplers could be original, only used on the earliest cars, but the newest Polar Express cars using this 9500 series tooling in China still have the molding for body-mounted couplers.  This car appears to be made up of two Lionel 9500 series observation cars, or 1 with some even more extreme cutting.  It could be from any car(s) 1973-present.  I'm not aware of any double-ended coaches made by Lionel in this body configuration. 

 

The lamp sockets are # 8352-320, which use a # 8352-310 bulb, and are pressed/snapped in to the molded posts.

 

Actually, the couplers look wrong, the originals did not have hollow knuckles.  And you have one staple-end truck,  & one bar-end.

 

No cutting required.  The 9500 Series vestibule was a separate snap-on piece.  To make the 9500-series Observation Car, all they did was leave the vestibule off one end, and snap the rail into the same holes. 

 

All on would have to do to make this is un-snap the ends and paint.

 

Jon

As many times as I've had these apart, I never noticed that until looking at the Blue Comet observation today and your comment.  That would make it pretty simple!

 

This could be a car of any vintage or roadname, then.  The notch in the overhang is a mystery, could have been made from a PE observation.

hello guys and gals..........

if that was my passenger car, i would use the williams semi-scale madison 6 wheel trucks for that car. 

the woman who loves toy trains

Tiffany

I agree with N.O.D.Y that your car is a 9500 series which were the first passenger cars issued by MPC.  Your car appears to be an observation car.   I have the 9509 PRR observation and when I googled it, I came up with these photos of it on that that same website provided by N.O.D.Y:

 

http://www.collector-modeltrai...log_item/MT-0853669/

 

As Kooljock mentioned, the vestibule on the far end in your photo has been removed. 

 

Re the couplers, the first three sets of those cars issued in 1973 (Milwaukee Road), 1974 (PRR) and 1975 (B&O) and add-on cars (except for dining cars) to those sets issued in later years used fixed non-operating couplers which were mounted on the cars, not the trucks.  But, I agree with Rob that they did not have hollow heads like the one pictured on your car.  Yours looks like a coupler from the post-war Tie-jector or ballast tamper which would likely be too short for this car.

 

The original trucks are shown in that photo and were plastic MPC 4-wheel trucks which may have been unique to that series of cars so the trucks on your car have been replaced with what appear to be postwar Lionel freight car trucks.  One original truck had a center rail pickup for the lights which were small and housed in white plastic holders which fit into those molded posts.

 

And my cars and the one on that website have notches on both ends of the roof.

 

HTH,

 

Bill

I think that this is an early paint scheme, perhaps the Strasburg's first. Way back in 1958, the Strasburg acquired Philadelphia & Reading coach 90849 and named it the CHERRY HILL

(now HUBER LEATH), then Ma & Pa coach 20 (used in the MGM film RAINTREE COUNTY). By 1961 they were painted green with white or yellow lettering and a yellow stripe beneath the windows. So this car is well worth preserving.

 

9500 series cars had closed vestibules (except for the observation car deck). This car represents a Strasburg car with open vestibules.

 

I agree with Tiffany that Madison 6-wheel trucks would look good, but for authenticity I would use 4-wheel passenger trucks like those on Strasburg cars. Using two trucks with pickup rollers and wiring them to both interior lights will reduce flickering.

That, and if it's an early 9500-Series, a six wheel truck would require more mods under the frame for swing room.

 

Jon

I've thought of using these to make open platform cars by using spare parts observation platforms on both ends. I am a little surprised Lionel themselves did not do this for thier Strasburg set to depict the old Boston and Maine coaches.

Could the hollow couplers just be installed upside down? --Joe

Just make a mental image of that and you will see why that is not the case.

A 2626 observation car was listed in Lionel's 1946 advance catalog. It was named Sager Place, after the street at the Lionel factory in Irvington, New Jersey. But that car wasn't listed in the 1946 consumer catalog. It didn't go into production. Its number remained vacant in Lionel's 3-car series: 2625, 2627, 2628.

 

Williams was the first to make 60' Madison observation cars, followed by baggage cars and combination cars ("combines"). When Lionel offered new 60' Madison cars, the Sager Place was finally included.

 

Maybe Lionel made an open-vestibule model when the Strasburg set was in the planning stages but decided to go with the more familiar closed vestibules. A few Strasburg passenger cars have them.

 

Cars with open vestibules and closed vestibules in the same set would look strange to average customers, but Strasburg fans would recognize them as 100% accurate (as long as numbers and/or names match their prototypes).